The flip is complete!

Woohoo! Everything went as planned and the hull was flipped to its cradle yesterday evening.  The weather was perfect and I had more help than I knew what to do with.   Besides emailing some friends, we decided to advertise the event in our neighborhood.  Over the months there was a lot of interest in the project from neighbors passing by, some who I didn't know by name, so we posted a sign to advertise the event.

The turnout was fantastic. I think the free beer helped.

Here is the lifting crew ready to start the exercise.  As you can see, there were more than enough bodies and there was very little room around the boat to find a lifting spot.  I didn't have to lift a finger as I was recording the event for posterity (and this blog!)

On the count of three the hull was lifted cleanly and started out the door.  Everyone remarked at the end how it didn't feel they were lifting anything.  When you have enough help, any project is a breeze.

Due to the tight fit through the door way (7' boat in an 8' doorway) the guys on one side had to drop off, move around the center post and pick up the hull on the outside.  It went very smoothly.  Once outside, we set the boat on some sawhorses so I could attach some temporary bracing, shown here.

These were two 2x4s that were clamped across the hull at two of the middle frames.  The idea was the hull would be set on its side during the flip and I wanted these to take the load and distribute it a little more evenly.  Once these were attached we set the hull on its side in the lawn next to my driveway.

We put a few moving pads on the lawn and rolled the hull to its bottom.  The hull was now officially flipped.

Here'e the entire crew admiring their work.  It literally took all of 15 minutes to get to this point.  Nice work!

The last step was to put on the cradle, remove the building form from the garage and roll it back into position.  The building form has three padded supports and casters for maneuvering.

And the boat fit like a charm.  When I built the cradle I laid the supports on the inverted hull and made sure they were in a straight line and supported the hull evenly and cleared the skeg.  I had to put some spacers under the casters on the front support to ensure everything was even.

The hull is back at home ready for more work.  I'm glad I am done with sanding for a while and can now do some wood cutting, fitting, and all the other stuff needed such as electrical, fuel system, steering and laying out the interior.  Other builders have commented that flipping the boat is only 1/3 of the way to completion, so I have lots to do.  I did have to try the boat out to see if it works. 

I had to make engines noises to get the full effect.  As you can see, this boat runs on Bud Select rather than gasoline.
Thanks to all that helped turn this milestone into a fun and successful event.